Applying for an Aeroplan Credit Card: TD, CIBC, or Amex — What Actually Differs

Aeroplan points come from eight different personal credit cards across three issuers, and most comparisons stop at "biggest bonus wins." The more useful comparison is what each issuer actually requires to approve you, and what the card is worth once you strip the bonus out. Here's both, card by card.

The income gates, side by side

TD and CIBC publish specific income thresholds for their Aeroplan Visa Infinite tiers; Amex does not publish one for any of its Aeroplan cards, consistent with Amex's lineup-wide policy of not stating a minimum income figure.

Card	Annual fee	Income requirement
CIBC Aeroplan Visa (no-fee)	$0	$15,000 household (published minimum)
TD Aeroplan Visa Platinum	$89	Not published
TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite	$139	$60,000 personal / $100,000 household
CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite	$139	$60,000 personal / $100,000 household
Amex Aeroplan Card	$120	Not published
TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege	$599	$150,000 personal / $200,000 household
CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege	$599	$150,000 personal / $200,000 household
Amex Aeroplan Reserve	$599	Not published

The pattern: TD and CIBC's mid-tier Visa Infinite cards gate on the same $60K/$100K bar, and their Privilege tiers gate on the same $150K/$200K bar — the two banks' Aeroplan products are close enough in structure that the income requirement is rarely the deciding factor between them. Amex publishes no income floor for any tier, which doesn't mean there's no bar — Amex evaluates overall financial profile rather than a stated number, the same pattern we found on the Cobalt and Platinum.

The application process differs more than the eligibility bar does

Amex's application flow includes a soft-check pre-qualification step before any hard inquiry — the same mechanism covered in our Cobalt and Platinum pieces, and it applies to the Amex Aeroplan Card and Aeroplan Reserve too. TD and CIBC's standard online applications don't offer an equivalent instant soft-check gate for a self-initiated full application; CIBC's own application guidance lists the information a full application requires — legal name, date of birth, address, employment history, gross annual income, and existing credit accounts — and states plainly that a good credit score and a credit-utilization ratio under 30% are relevant to approval. In practice, that means the Amex applications in this group carry less downside risk to test your odds than the TD or CIBC ones do.

Year one: the bonus, against the fee, by card

Card	Bonus value	First-year net value
CIBC Aeroplan Visa (no-fee)	$190	$250
TD Aeroplan Visa Platinum	$380	$420
TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite	$760	$800
CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite	$950	$1,090
Amex Aeroplan Card	$855	$545
TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege	$1,615	$1,016
CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege	$1,900	$1,301
Amex Aeroplan Reserve	$2,850	$1,490

(Figures are each card's own published bonus value and first-year net value, computed at our current Aeroplan valuation — see any card's page for its full breakdown.) Two things worth noticing: first, the no-fee CIBC Aeroplan Visa and the $89 TD Visa Platinum exist specifically as low-commitment on-ramps — smaller numbers, but nothing to lose if Air Canada loyalty turns out not to be worth a bigger fee. Second, the Amex Aeroplan Card's bonus value ($855) is actually higher than TD's equivalent-tier Visa Infinite ($760), but its first-year net value is lower — a reminder that first-year net value already accounts for the fee and a year of category earn, not just the headline bonus, and the two numbers can rank cards differently.

Year two: what actually keeps earning once the bonus is gone

Every card in this group earns Aeroplan points at a modest rate outside the welcome bonus — none of these are built to be primary everyday earners the way the Cobalt is. What each tier adds instead:

• Entry tier (no-fee, $89–$120): direct Aeroplan earning plus Preferred Pricing on award redemptions as a cardholder — but the checked-bag perk is not standard here. Of the three, only the $120 Amex Aeroplan Card includes a free first checked bag on Air Canada; the CIBC no-fee card and TD Visa Platinum both leave that perk to the Visa Infinite tier, as their own card pages note. The no-fee CIBC card costs nothing to hold, and the Amex's bag perk alone clears its $120 fee in a couple of return trips a year.
• Mid tier ($139): adds a first checked bag for you and companions, plus modestly better priority services. Air Canada's first checked bag on domestic and Canada–US routes costs $45 CAD each way as of April 2026 (up from $35) — so a household of two, each checking one bag on both legs of a single return trip, would otherwise pay $180 ($45 × 2 bags × 2 legs) without the card. That one trip alone clears the $139 fee, before counting any points earned.
• Premium/Privilege tier ($599): adds Maple Leaf Lounge access and, on the CIBC and Amex versions, Aeroplan Status Qualifying Credits toward elite status — genuinely valuable for someone flying Air Canada often, and genuinely wasted spend for someone who doesn't. As the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege's own verdict puts it, this tier is "compelling for CIBC clients who fly Air Canada often, but the income gate and $25,000 spend for the full bonus keep it a narrow-audience card" — the same logic applies to its TD and Amex counterparts.

The practical decision

If you already bank with TD or CIBC, that relationship's Aeroplan card is the natural default — the two banks' products are close enough in structure and cost that switching banks purely to chase a marginally better Aeroplan card rarely pays for the hassle. If you don't have a strong bank preference, Amex's soft-check flow is the lower-risk way to test your odds first, though acceptance gaps (the same Amex limitation covered throughout this site) matter more on a card you're choosing specifically for its co-brand perks. For redeeming the points once you've earned them, see our Aeroplan sweet spots and full redemption ranking.

Income-gate and bonus/fee figures pulled directly from each card's own published data on this site (originally sourced to each issuer's card page — see individual card pages for citations). Application-process details for CIBC attributed to CIBC's own application guidance; Amex's soft-check pattern attributed to PointsWise, consistent with our Cobalt and Platinum pieces. Air Canada baggage fee sourced from Milesopedia's baggage fee coverage. Verified July 16, 2026 — welcome offers on several of these cards carry their own end dates; check individual card pages for current terms.